HL1A: Clare crush Decies
March 16, 2014
Shane O'Donnell of Clare turns his man.
©INPHO/Ken Sutton
In the end, 13 points separated the sides but it could have been much worse for the visitors had not the Banner eased up for pretty much the entire second half.
The victors went on an amazing scoring spree of 4-14 without reply in the first half to lead by 4-15 to 0-4 at the break. Man of the Match Shane O'Donnell was at the heart of everything they did, netting one goal himself and providing the assist for his team's other three first-half majors, scored by Patrick Donnellan, Podge Collins and Peter Duggan.
O'Donnell also bagged the fifth goal in the second half.
Both sides made late changes to their starting teams, with Jake Dillon coming in for Na Deise while O'Donnell started for the Banner. It was just like the All-Ireland final all over again in some regards...
The visitors got off to an encouraging start as Pauric Mahony clipped over a couple of frees but Podge Collins and Colin Ryan (free) quickly drew the All-Ireland champions level.
O'Donnell took a pass from Cathal McInerney to edge Clare in front for the first time and the roles were reversed as O'Donnell teed up McInerney to make it 0-4 to 0-2 after nine minutes. Ryan then tagged on a fifth successive score for the wind-assisted hosts.
O'Donnell added another Clare point in the 13th minute and this was followed almost instantly by a Patrick Donnellan goal - 1-6 to 0-3!
The Clare onslaught was relentless as Conor McGrath made it 1-7 without reply and Ryan quickly added a point from a free to leave nine points between the teams at the end of the opening quarter: 1-8 to 0-2.
O'Donnell was pulling all the strings and he turned goal provider for the second time of the afternoon as he picked out Podge Collins in the 20th minute and the dual star made no mistake. When Ryan and McInerney added points from play, the scoreboard was starting to take on a nightmare look from Waterford's perspective: 2-10 to 0-2…
Collins floated over another point to leave 15 between the sides with twelve minutes still to play in the first half. After Ryan dispatched a free, O'Donnell got the goal his first-half performance richly deserved on 26 minutes before Peter Duggan added a point from play.
Incredibly, O'Donnell claimed his third goal assist of the first half when picking out Duggan for a fourth Banner County goal on the half-hour mark and Brendan Bugler pointed to make it 4-14 without reply for the rampant All-Ireland champions.
Brian Sullivan supplied Waterford's first score from play in the 32nd minute and two more points were shared before the short whistle sounded with a whopping 23 points separating the teams.
Kevin Moran, Stephen Molumphy and Pauric Mahony slotted the first three points of the second half for Derek McGrath's team before Ryan Donnelly and Maurice Shanahan made it five without reply for the losers, who still trailed by 18 points!
Any foolish notions about a potential Waterford comeback were dispelled when O'Donnell pounced for his second three-pointer nine minutes into the second half, 5-15 to 0-9. After Waterford pulled back another couple of points, Tony Kelly speared over the winners' 16th point of the day.
Four points were swapped and Pat O'Connor registered for Davy Fitzgerald's charges 13 minutes from the end to stretch the lead back to 19 points, 5-18 to 0-14. O'Sullivan responded for Waterford, who refused to let their heads drop despite that first-half pummelling.
Mahony brought his tally to eight and Shanahan's converted free at least left Waterford level on points scored (but it was impossible to ignore those five Clare goals!): 5-18 to 0-18.
Shanahan and Sullivan bagged the last two points of the day for the visitors, who registered the last six scores of the game and 'won' the second half by 0-16 to 1-3.
Just small crumbs of consolation, though.
Clare - D Tuohy; D O'Donovan, C Dillon, D McInerney; B Bugler (0-1), Conor Ryan (0-1), P O'Connor (0-1); P Donnellan (1-0), Colin Ryan (0-6, 5f); P Duggan (1-1), P Collins (1-2), J Conlon; C McInerney (0-2), S O'Donnell (2-2), C McGrath (0-1). Subs: T Kelly (0-1) for J Conlon, P Flanagan for C Dillon, S Golden for Colin Ryan, D Reidy for C McGrath, C O'Connell for C McInerney.
Waterford - S O'Keeffe; N Connors, S Fives, T De Burca; J Nagle, K Moran (0-1), P Mahony; J Dillon, S O'Sullivan; B O'Sullivan (0-4), P Mahony (0-8, 6f), S Molumphy (0-2); R Barry, S Prendergast, R Donnelly (0-1). Subs: M Shanahan (0-3, 2f) for R Barry, B Coughlan for S Fives, S Roche (0-1) for R Donnelly, K Fitzgerald for P Mahony, S McNulty for J Nagle.
Referee - J McGrath. Tweet
